Insights and Stories of Rod Nickel

Jan. 27, 2012 at 5:08 pm CST

The 103-year-old organization that co-ordinates shipments through Canada’s two biggest grain-shipping ports is winding down, saying it may not be needed once the Canadian Wheat Board loses its monopoly. The Winnipeg-based Canadian Ports Clearance Association (CPCA) will cease operations this summer on Aug. 31, one month after the Wheat Board […]

By Rod Nickel

Jan. 19, 2012 at 6:46 pm CST

Suspending a new law that ended the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly would sow confusion in Western Canada’s grain industry, lawyers for the federal government said in court on Wednesday in a hearing on a plea from eight former directors. The onetime CWB directors, Prairie farmers ousted when the bill to […]

By Rod Nickel

Jan. 17, 2012 at 9:52 pm CST

A Manitoba judge questioned on Tuesday whether he, and not another court, should rule on whether to suspend a law that will end the Canadian Wheat Board’s grain monopoly. The case, brought by eight farmers who were directors of the board until Ottawa took control last month, is one of […]

By Rod Nickel

Jan. 3, 2012 at 11:23 pm CST

Canada’s Prairie farm belt is the driest it has been in five years, raising concerns for cattle and winter cereals in a region that has been recently more prone to floods. Large pockets of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have received less than 40 per cent of normal precipitation during the […]

By Rod Nickel

Dec. 16, 2011 at 10:01 pm CST

A court challenge of the new law ending the Canadian Wheat Board’s marketing monopoly proceeded in a Manitoba court on Friday, while the government insisted it was full steam ahead on its market-opening plans, and grain handler Viterra began offering forward contracts. Eight now-former farmer directors of the Canadian Wheat […]

By Randall Palmer, Rod Nickel